Just everyday stuff in the kitchen and garden.

I got hold of some fresh looking green beans and wanted to use them in conjunction with pearl onions and black walnuts. I built on the idea throughout the morning, prepping the ingredients at odd moments between other activities as they occurred to me.

Black walnuts have a strong flavor which I thought might need to be tempered by mixing English walnuts in with them. It turned out that black walnuts on their own would have been fine, but I roasted them 50/50 with regular walnuts in a dry pan.

I peeled the pearl onions by first pouring boiling water over them and letting them blanch for a minute before cooling them under cold running water. I also cut red bell pepper and jalapeño into chunks and chopped up the green beans.

I browned the pearl onions for a few minutes in a skillet with coconut oil before adding in the peppers. and kosher salt.

Next I added water with a little maple syrup mixed in to the onions and peppers. This was cooked partially covered with a lid until most of the liquid had boiled off.

That’s when I mixed in the roasted walnuts.

When all the liquid was gone and everything could be pushed up in a pile I removed the caramelized ingredients from the pan and set them aside.

I deglazed the pan with the liquid from a 4oz can of mushrooms, and added the chopped green beans.

The green beans were cooked partially covered with a lid, and when the liquid had boiled off I mixed in the canned mushrooms followed by cooked rice leftover from another project.

After a few minutes I added the caramelized ingredients back into the pan and continued cooking until everything was well heated.

The caramelized onions, peppers and walnuts contributed a sweetness to the dish that seemed entirely appropriate. This was a great way to use black walnuts, and next time I will leave out the English walnuts and use only black walnuts.